PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL
RECORD
MACOUPIN COUNTY ILLINOIS - 1891

Chicago: Biographical Publishing Company

Page 528

HENRY C. DUCKELS is numbered among the practical and enterprising young farmers and stock-raisers who have within recent years stepped to the front to assist in carrying forward the great agricultural interests of this their native county and is successfully managing the Loper farm in Western Mound Township. He was born in Chesterfield Township December 2, 1855, a son of Richard and Elizabeth Duckels, pioneers of that township, of whom a sketch appears elsewhere in this volume.

Mr. Duckels resided with his parents until his marriage and then settled on a farm in Western Mound Township. He was busily engaged in tilling its soil the ensuing three years, and at the expiration of that time removed to Chesterfield and devoted himself to the mercantile business there one year. His next enterprise was to engage in the manufacture of flour at Medora, where he operated a mill one year. After that he purchased a farm in Chesterfield Township, and taking up his residence on it, was actively employed in its cultivation and improvement for some time. Under his care its one hundred and twenty acres of rich soil yielded good harvests and a comfortable income.

In 1886 Mr. Duckels removed to the Loper homestead, the estate of his late father-in-law, Adrian W. Loper, in Western Mound Township, and has charge of the farm, which under his able management is kept up to the same fine condition that it had attained during the lifetime of Mr. Loper. Our subject carries on his work in an orderly manner, after the most approved system of agriculture, and has won an assured position among the successful men of his calling gin his native county.

Mr. Duckels was married in 1877 to Miss Ophelia Loper, and in her he has had the encouragement and assistance of a true wife. She is also a native of the county, born in Western Mound Township, and a daughter of the late Adrian W. and Susan Loper, of whom an account appears elsewhere. Mr. and Mrs. Duckels have four children, whom they have named Thomas W., Gertrude, Reynold and William Elden.